A few days ago, I saw Nick Clegg claiming that his party was at the forefront of reducing the number of empty homes. Sarah Teather, the Liberal Democrat MP for Brent East frequently makes this claim.
For example, here we see her in 2005 quoting figures from a parliamentary answer to suggest that the number of empty homes has gone up. If you look at her figures, going up or down seems to depend on the baseline, with annual changes being quite large.
Ms Teather has chosen to use 1997 as a baseline, giving a 6.5% increase in empty properties to 2004 (her final year). Had she chosen the year of her election, 2003, she could have demonstrated a 0.2% fall. Choosing 2002 as a baseline would show a 10% fall, and so on. Her use of figures remind me of her Brent Council colleagues efforts with carbon emissions.
Nevertheless, there is no doubt that housing is a huge problem in Brent and elsewhere. That is why it is so disappointing that Sarah Teather and the Liberal Democrats in charge of Brent Council (led on housing issues by Cllr James Allie, who hopes to join Teather in Parliament representing Brent North), have downgraded empty homes as a policy priority.
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